There

After Halloween we were welcome back any time, so throughout the winter we brought our video cameras and tape recorders and David would let us snoop around his house. He would also cook dinner, usually a BBQ, so it was like a party. A party with ghosts, parapsychologists, psychics, and us. During those months we got to experience the phenomena in the house, and I can honestly say there wasn't a time we went there that something paranormal didn't happen. It wasn't until the seance in March (next blog entry!) that I really got to know about the ghosts themselves, however. But we witnessed plenty of phenomena.

It was our first time back, in February, that the "ball incident" happened. Jeff and I each had our own video camera, and we were on the third floor. There was no one else with us. The lights were off, but Jeff knew where the switch was, so we walked across the pitch black, ice-cold room toward the wall farthest from the stairs. I was wearing my winter coat but I was shivering, it was so cold. As I said, it's a heavy room, and I was nervous being down there in the dark, but I wasn't about to act nervous. So when I heard a THWACK! coming from about ground level I said casually, "Oh, crap, what did I kick?" Even though I knew I hadn't kicked anything. Luckily this is all on tape and when I watch it I can hear the false bravado in my voice! Jeff, meanwhile, was telling me that something had just struck him on the shin. Still trying to play it cool and make a joke out of it, I asked him if he hadn't kicked it, whatever it was (the lights were still out). He said no, he'd felt it smack into his leg. We finally found the light switch and I was a bit surprised at what i saw. It was plastic, but it wasn't a dog toy as I'd assumed; it was a plastic painted eyeball! Turns out that it was from a creepy doll thing that had been on the first floor on Halloween. When the decorations were put away the eyeball was missing. Nobody knows how it got on the third floor that night in February, the first time we'd been back since Halloween. And there's really no way we kicked it; besides, how did it get down there? I should emphasize that it didn't feel threatening, it was more of a playful feeling ("I see you!" with the eyeball and all that).

Well, that's an example of the type of stuff we'd experience. Some of it was more startling, but for the most part it seemed friendly. But I should clarify that my feelings, then and now, were that there were the good entities, the ones I came to refer to as "our friends," and then there was at least one that wasn't so good, one I would have to call a negative entity. Other people who were investigating, or who were visiting, called him the Angry Man. His domain seemed to be the third floor, particularly the guest room there. This room was referred to as, believe it or not, the haunted bedroom. We we were all aware of the irony, since the whole house was haunted, but there you have it.

The third floor, being the lowest level, was built the farthest of all the floors into the hillside. This is one of the reasons it was always cold. An interesting thing about this floor: one of the doors opened onto a bare patch of the hillside, the baring wall. For this reason the "room" behind the door was referred to as the earthen wall room (you may have noticed it became easy - and necessary - to come up with nicknames for various features of the house). The main room on this lowest level was big and open like a den or family room, and David had set up a projector and used it as movie theater/screening room. So the third floor was basically one large main room with a bedroom and a "closet" that actually opened onto a patch of the hillside.

David's house is very big and very pretty. There are several bedrooms and several bathrooms and lots of open space. He has a beautiul spiral staircase connecting all three floors; on the outside of the house, a staircase runs along the left side of the house from the road to the back of the house, going down three and a half floors so that if you walk down them you end up standing on the hill under the third floor. Along this stairway there is a set of doors which leads to the third floor, so if you are on the third floor you can enter or leave by this stairway. At every door to the house he has a security system and a call box; he also has call boxes in various rooms throughout the house, so if anybody rings while he's in the bedroom or the office (or the third floor) he doesn't miss them.

As I said, it's a beautiful house -- hard wood floors, balconies looking off behind the house to the hillside below -- and David is an immaculate housekeeper. He built the house in 2004 so it was obviously brand new. During the time of the terrible crimes in 1969, nothing stood where his house does now. There were the two neighbors to his left, and then Sharon Tates' house, 10050 Cielo Drive.

During our next several visits I learned the basics of the haunting. Since this is a blog, not a novel, I give it to you briefly: When David and his father bought the property, David was aware of what had happened down the street but that was all; he certainly didn't move there because of it, but he was aware it had happened. He didn't think much about it until construction, when odd things started happening with his workers. In particular, one worker was so scared by an "incident" (to put it euphamistically) that he didn't come back for six weeks! By the time David spoke to him he was already moving in, but he'd had his own share of weird by then. Sounds, especially of footsteps; cold spots, overall creepiness. But the laborer's story is worth mentioning here.

He was working on the electrical wiring on what would be, you guessed it, the third floor. He was supposed to be alone on the property. Suddenly he heard these very heavy footsteps coming towards him down the long spiral staircase. He wasn't afraid until he called out a greeting and got no answer. Then the footsteps stopped. The laborer walked around the house but couldn't see any intruders. He felt uneasy, since he was alone and there was a possibility of vandals, but he went back to work. Before long the footsteps starting coming again, big slow deliberate footsteps. I don't know how many times this went on, with him hearing the footsteps and calling out and nobody answering, but finally, when it happened again, he decided not to call out but to hide behind the stairs, wrench in hand, and jump out as soon as the steps got close enough. When they did, he jumped out, but there was no one there. There was, however, an ice-cold blast of air that moved right through him. It was a hot summer day and it had been hot working downstairs. Now this icy draft swept through him and that was enough. I assume he held onto his wrench while he bolted up the stairs past someone who WASNT THERE and out the front door, not to return again, for at least six weeks. Even then I'm not sure he came onto the property.

By the time David heard the story he already knew something was up with his new house. But he's a spiritual sort of person and had always been interested in the supernatural. In my opinion he's also very psychic. He wasn't thrilled about the worker's story but I don't think he worried too much about it. From the moment he moved in he began experiencing phenomena, but at that time he did not associate any of it with what had happened down the street. He'd had some deaths in his immediate circle of family and friends and wondered if it was one of them, trying to get in touch.

And then it happened: the event that everything hinges on, the incident that began and defines this whole crazy story. Not long after he moved in, David was awakened from a sound sleep to see a man standing in the middle of his room. He was able to describe what the man was wearing in great detail; I don't remember that part but he described the man as short to medium height, young, with dark hair. The man had his left arm raised straight out, pointing to the left. He pivoted at the waist, sweeping back and forth, with his finger towards the bottom of the road. He did this several times, then faded away.

David was freaked out, but though he didn't recognize the person he'd seen, he was still assuming the apparition concerned a friend of his who had recently passed away. A few days later he came across a picture of Jay Sebring. Then he really freaked out. "Oh my god, that's him, that's the guy I saw!"

Needless to say, David became a lot more interested in what happened up the street. Also, Jay apparently invited his friends along, because by the time I came on the scene, David believed (as I do now) that his house was being visited by several entities, but most notably by Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Voytek Frykowski, Abigail Folger, and Steve Parent.

Remember what I said last time, about not wanting to benefit in any way from the tragedy of the deaths of these famous people? Believe it. You may not believe that these people were haunting David's house, but I believe that they were, and I give you my word that I would not disrespect these people by making anything up. I respect them more than I could ever convey with words. Everything I am going to relate in these pages is true, as far as I am able to distinguish what is true and what that even means in this strange realm, the paranormal being hard to define and pin down anyway. What I am saying is, I'm not making this stuff up. I don't need to connect myself to tragic events that happened to famous people, during a famous murder spree 40 years ago, to feel important. If anything, I am humbled by my contact with the inhabitants of Cielo. Whoever or whatever they turn out to be, they, my friends, made contact with me. I value this so much that I have to share it. I can't believe I was so, well... honored. And it wasn't just me, of course, but I can only tell you about what I experienced.

That's all for now. Next time I'll be writing about The Seance, as I call it, of March 2006, when the spirits really started to make contact. (I just read that sentence back to myself and I sound like a lunatic.) And yes, there's a video tape of the whole thing. I'll try to put a link up. Anyway, please remember how important these people are to me. Remember that even though I'm sharing these stories because they're too cool to keep to myself, that these people were, and are, real. That they deserve all the respect we can give them, whether you believe my ghost stories or not.

KAW

[KAW]

Cielo: The Beginning of the Story

It began in the fall of 2005 -- well, actually, it really began on Halloween night. But the events leading up to my involvement with Cielo were as follows:

My boyfriend, Jeff, lives in a house built in the 30's in Hancock Park, very old Hollywood. Throughout the years weird stuff had happened to his family while they lived there and everyone agreed the house was probably haunted. When I first met him, the events were spooky but harmless (I'll discuss those later). But by the summer of 2005 things had changed. The haunting had escalated until it became necessary to actually seek out some help. So we contacted a parapsychologist, and the parapsychologist in turn put us in touch with David, who, we were told, lived in a very haunted house on Cielo drive. And so it happened that we were invited to see the house on Halloween night, when there would be a small investigation going on as well as some filming for one of the local news stations.

I was really excited. I had always been interested in the supernatural; in fact, at one time I had wanted to be a parapsychologist myself and had taken courses on it in college. Everyone we talked to claimed this house was very haunted, the real thing. Yes, Jeff's house was haunted, but that was ours, if that makes any sense. This house on Cielo drive had been the subject of numerous investigations and had been declared haunted by independent witnesses. It was as close to official as you can get, as far as the paranormal is concerned.

I don't remember the drive up there that first night, but I'll never forget walking in the front door for the first time. David greeted us and led us into the foyer, where the outline of a body was marked in masking tape - very CSI. It took me a moment to realize it was Halloween so he had the house decorated!

David took us on a brief tour, and then Jeff and I split up. Jeff likes to socialize so he started chatting up the other investigators, and I wandered off a little by myself to listen to the house. That's pretty much the pattern we would follow for the next few years. Several things happened that night that I should mention.

The first thing I experienced on my own was the sound of breathing. David's house is a split-level three storey that he and his Dad built together. I always refer to the bottom floor as the third level and the top floor as the first, I don't know why. So I was on the second floor walking down the stairs to the third floor, the bottom level, when I heard the breathing. It did not scare me, and it wasn't a scary sort of breathing. Just... Breathing. Like if you were tired or had run hard you might breathe like that. I am very sensitive to what I would call the intentions of any spooks that choose to communicate, and the intent behind this breathing was, well, friendly. It was just saying, hi, I'm here. Several other things happened that night but that one will always stick out for me, for reasons that will soon be clear. But among other things, Jeff and I also heard a man's voice talking, possibly over a radio.

I had been expecting to be frightened, given all I'd heard about the house from our parapsychologist friend, and due to the history of the place, but these first few things seemed friendly, almost playful. It wasn't until a bit later that I became alarmed. For one thing the house has a very heavy atmosphere. It's also freezing cold, especially on the 3rd floor. So when more people showed up and David gave another tour, I stayed upstairs. David set me up in the den to watch TV and relax or whatever, and I used the opportunity to bundle up in my coat. Now, the den is flanked by the bar, which opens out onto the living room, so from my comfy chaise I could see a good portion of the top floor. I was joined by David's 2 huge dogs, Sebastian and Stella, who were either guarding me or hoping I would guard them. We watched TV together. I was vaguely aware of more visitors standing at the bar talking, but they left me alone. This was good because I had started to feel a bit sick. I tried to focus on the show we were watching, because it was too cold to go get Jeff, but I was feeling pretty uncomfortable after a while. And then the dogs started growling. First Sebastian, then Stella. They huddled a little closer, growling deep in their throats, but not loud. The humor of the situation was not lost on me! Looking back on it now, I feel the same as I felt then: somebody was checking me out. Now, I believe it was a different someone than the presence I'd felt earlier. Then, I didn't differentiate. I let whoever it was have a look and stayed focused on the show. Incidentally, I later found out that there were no other people by the bar that night, at least none that David had invited. That was news to me! I still remember the people standing around, murmuring with each other, just like you'd expect guests to do at a party. But I didn't know they weren't "real" until the next day.

At any rate, things didn't turn unpleasant until 11 o'clock drew near. This was because the news people would be doing their live spiel and we wouldn't be able to leave once they started. I was very sick by this point, a sort of sea-sick feeling, but I was also getting the vibe that it was time to GO. Now. And this is another pattern that would play out time and again: Jeff said okay, but then he just could not stop talking to people. He kept getting sucked back into conversations. It was like he was high. Finally I grabbed him and drug him to the door, saying good bye as politely as possible. We made it just as they were rolling film.

After that, we were invited back whenever we wanted, and we spent many days there, sometimes several days a week. We filmed, took audio recordings and photographs, attended seances, and I was always scribbling away in my notebook. But about the breathing:

Before he'd set me up in the den, when Jeff and I were finishing up our tour, I told David what I'd heard. He asked me what kind of breathing and I imitated it for him. He said at once, "Oh, that's Voytek. Where were you in the house when you heard it?" I told him, and he said, "Yeah! That was Voytek." And just like that, my friendship with Voytek had begun.

KAW

Benedict Canyon

Many things have happened these last couple of months; it's ironic that when I become busy I have no time to write about anything! Other people manage, though, so I suppose I will have to learn to do it, too. I am sorry to report that I will probably not be going back to investigate the house in Benedict Canyon. Things could change, of course, but for many reasons I feel that for now, at least, the site has been tapped out. That's an over-simplification, but I don't have a better way of saying it. I have been investigating that house since 2005, and have had many experiences there. I've also collected a lot of data that it will take me a while yet to sift through. Now, though, I believe I should do what I was hesitant to do before: reveal the location of the house.

My friend, whose house I am and have been referring to, lives on Cielo Drive, just a few houses down the street from where Sharon Tate's house once stood. Yes, this is the area where the infamous Manson Family murders occurred on the night of August 8, 1969. Perhaps you can see why I didn't mention this before. Let me state right now that I have absolutely no interest in profiting in any way from the notorious nature of those crimes. I am not interested in dropping the names of famous ghosts (!) and I have enormous respect for the people that lost their lives that night. I sincerely believe that the spirits of some of those people linger in the canyon, however, and so I am reporting incidents that have happened during the investigation at the site.

Whew! Now that it's out, I feel a little better. I really agonized over whether or not to go into specifics, but how else am I going to add anything to our knowledge of the paranormal? Honesty is the only way we'll ever get anywhere. Now that the investigation is wrapped, I see it more clearly. So for the next several months I will be reporting on my findings at Cielo Drive from October 2005 to August 2009. Some of the most extraordinary things happened during that time, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to experience them. Now it's time to share. I'd better get to work on my next blog entry! See you soon...

[KAW]